Astropolitik

Chapter 1: Sucker

Scene 1 –• Wakes up in the middle of a room, with a dented wall, locked door. • Pushes the door open• Room opens to Iceman (stupid name) the pimp, and two enforcers, and a bunch of prostitutes, one of whom Jareth had injured• Jareth tries to talk/argue for a little bit, decides to just fight. • Burns one of the thugs and caves Iceman's face in with a flying face punch• Marcus walks in, executes guards, gives Jareth access codes for a new job

-wakes up, has caffeine pills with OJ (synthetic), showersz, go to work an hour late -work in crust, goes to her office, people at work have mixed feelings about her as a person -notification from KLEIN about job, video message from Hort of his ceiling-climbing cats -delegates subordinates to do stuff with emails related to job (Chowdhury, biochemical engineer who is having problems with his computer systemsz) -KLEIN talks to lorrie about chowdhury case, fiatLUX is responsible for leaks in cases that Lorrie worked on, KLEIN says unless she can prove otherwise, he'll assume that she is fiatLUX. Should be a trivial case, but investigate and don't let it happen again. good work btw. -Lorrie puts tracer on subordinate to begin investigation of subordinates. Leak stuff has to do with biochem, specifically has to do with procedure stuff though no conclusions. -Lorrie finds some info and decrypts to figure out that the leak is from Hort's computer. Skepticism. She has tlacel on Hort -Lorrie goes to talk SAMSONLAZARO (a subordinate) to show him the data KLEIN gave her so she can has understand what the experiment is useful for, employ humor to make him think she's not trying to steal it -it so happens that its about increasing tolerances to immersive reality, lorrie assimilates info, and looks up stuff about fiatLUX -fiatLUX am woman hackel, info goes to her and then somewhere else. She am specifically Melis Qasimova, Client Relations Officer for CommPact Waste Management Solutions

-Flashback to two months ago: Vlad is in a dark briefing room with a Tycho Group Agent, who tells him that he is needed for an operation of theirs involving the Galilean Union. -Vlad is curious why he, a tech, is going to be working for them. Agent responds that they need someone very technically capable and experience with the maintenance and design of defense arrays, which none of their agents are, to infiltrate a scientist's lab and get as much information as they can back to the TF. As a final note, he adds that if it goes well, vlad will be taken off of active duty and allowed to work for the TF at his leisure so he can be with his family. -Vlad agrees, and they get into the specifics… -Back to present, Vlad, under the identity Kristos "Railgun" McCoy, wakes up on a transport vessel pulling in to dock at Cormac on Europa. Goes through customs as a foreigner, and presents the authorization he was given from the Tycho Group. -After waiting around, Vlad meets up with Gentsia, Tsai's secretary. They head over to the transport tube to meet with Tsai. Small talk goes awkwardly as Vlad tries to stick to his cover and comes off as an uneasy man. -They arrive at Tsai's apartment, Vlad interacts with .seneschal, Tsai's AI. When Tsai arrives, they have an informal interview where Vlad/Kristos talks about his previous work. -Tsai tells Vlad that he's working on a defense system, so Vlad/Kristos will be in his element. Satisfied, Tsai says see you tomorrow, and Gentsia shows him to his apartment -Intermission! -Vlad takes the transport tube back to Tsai's lab the next day, and Tsai is late. He shows up in a few minutes, and they get down to business. -In the lab are many immersion tanks, and Tsai says that that is where Kristos will be working, after he learns how to use it. -.Seneschal and Vlad do a training exercise in the tank while immersed, and vlad thinks he fails, but apparently did very well by actually getting things (though not the right ones) to happen. They continue with exercises.

-Wakes up and goes to the lab to find that Ikvinder, Doctor Lim's apprentice and persistent thorn in Sabio's side, has been working for at least 40 hours on some problem regarding reconciling different simulation paradigms-Sabio questions why Ikvinder has worked so much overtime and if the approach might be wrong; Ikvinder snaps back and asks why Sabio doesn't take it up with Lim if he's so concerned-Ikvinder gets frustrated and leaves-Sabio decides to look over Ikvinder's work. bell.1c0Se, the lab's AI, warns him not to pull anything funny. Sabio consults Oby and they conclude that Lim has sent Ikvinder on a wild goose chase to test him-Sabio realizes someone may be in this failed simulation-His fear is correct and he recovers a young man from the simulation tank. At first the boy cannot even remember his own name but eventually Sabio assesses his affective states and has bell.1c0se provide the data on how to handle a subject that has turned out this way. Sabio implants a command to prevent the boy from recalling his experience and directs him out of the lab-Ikvinder and returns and he and Sabio get in a nasty argument on experimental ethics which mainly consists of personal attacks. After ikvinder strikes a particularly low blow Sabio parts with the promise that Ikvinder will "learn to have more respect when in he presence of a fallen God". He then leaves to cool off and get a sandwich